Harmony Christian Church

There are certain people who push the paradigms you think in, John the Baptist was one of those people.  Jump in with us in Sections 17, 19, & 20 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

You ever met someone and thought, “I just want to spend more time with you to learn the way you think…”

My buddy Dan Mitchell is like that - he was my youth pastor and the one who mentored/discipled me and still continues to.  

Still to this day, 30 years later he challenges me.  I still want to learn to think like he does, I still want to have the kind of heart he has for Jesus.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in life is to stop putting yourself in positions where your paradigm is pushed.

It’s one of the reasons I think you should make being in church every week a huge priority because you need someone outside of you pushing on your paradigm 

Who in your world pushes your paradigm?  Your way of thinking?

This morning, I want to put you into contact with someone from the timeline of Jesus who should push your paradigm…

We are jumping into the history of Jesus' life at the beginning of his ministry.  

His baptism by John the Baptist.

John is out in the desert baptizing people who are coming to him.  He’s dressed in camel hair clothing with a leather belt and his primary diet is honey & locusts.

Josephus the ancient Jewish Roman Historian talks briefly about John the Baptist in Antiquities 18 (https://www.livius.org/sources/content/josephus/jewish-antiquities/josephus-on-john-the-baptist/)

I want you to get that John was a real person and we really have stuff to learn from him.

Today, the Jordan river where John was baptizing is gross and full of runoff junk - but it would have been a spot of life in the middle of a desert.  People have traveled a long way to get to John.  This is a little like Woodstock - but the religious version.  And where we come into the scene John is being questioned by religious leaders about who he is and what he’s doing, check it out…

as we go through this - I want you to let John push your paradigm

3 Ways John Should Push Your Paradigm…

Jn 1:19-34

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders[a] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you th

What do Snakes, Adam & Eve, and a guy named Nicodemus all have to do with each other?  Tune in to learn!  Jump in with us in Sections 24 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Time for me to expose a secret about my wife…  She LOVES the tv show survivor, I mean like crazy loves it.  If I try to make fun of it, I’m sleeping on the couch loves it…  Ha.  One of the staples of the show survivor is Jeff Probst comes on at the beginning of the episode and says, “previously on survivor!”

and then they recap what’s happened up until that point.  

Today, we are going to look at one of the most well-known passages of scripture in the bible.  

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But before we do, I’ve got to recap a few stories for you so we can see something you may have never seen before.

Is everyone ok with that?

So, “Previously in the bible!”

Two stories:

Story One:  Adam & Eve

First, Adam & Eve, my guess is most of you are at least familiar with this story, right - you may not believe it’s actually true, but you’re familiar with it.  Even if you don’t believe it actually happened, which I do, you have to at the least admit it is the story of humanity in a nutshell…  Adam & Eve are the first created humans in all of history.  They are formed from the dust of the ground, God breathes life into them.  They live in union with God until one day the serpent comes to them and tempts them to eat from the one tree in the Garden that God had told them not to eat from…  Does this sound familiar?  You know the story right?  In Genesis 3, they eat, realize they are naked, and sew fig leaves to cover themselves.  Then God comes walking into the Garden and they hide from Him.  God asks them why they are hiding and Adam lies, he says, “Because we were naked”, but they weren’t naked anymore

They are hiding because they can’t bear to be exposed…

either physically or spiritually…

Ok, Keep story one in your back pocket

Story Two:  Snake Bites

In Numbers 21 there is a story about the Israelites after they have left Egypt, this is Moses leading them out into the desert, this is 1,600ish years before Jesus.  A long time ago….

The people are wandering around in the desert, they had followed Moses out of Egypt thinking they were getting freedom, which they did, but it wasn’t what they thought.  They were thirsty and hungry and had enemies on all sides and they had to trust God.  They are in the middle of the desert, and they get mad at God, they get mad at Moses and they start to complain and grumble.

This kind of cracks me up, God sends poisonous snakes among these people…  I know it’s serious, but I know this is how people are.  God is taking care of them, He’s providing food and water, He’s freed them from slavery and given Himself

What does it mean to be born again?  For a long time I missed what Jesus actually says about this idea, tune in to see if you've missed it or not.  Jump in with us in Sections 24 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

So, over Christmas break, I was standing in the kitchen with my nephew who was asking me what I do as a pastor- lol.  He was like, “I know you preach and stuff, but, like, do you work the rest of the week?”  I’ve always thought if people think I really only work one hour a week, why don’t I?  Lol.  

I told him my week is full of meetings, leadership decisions, one on one coaching, staff meetings and more.  Plus, I have to write a 10-page persuasive research paper that has to be engaging enough for you to want to give me 30 minutes of your time and then I have to present the paper every week.  It’s a weird job.

But then he asked me a good question, he asked me if I ever struggle with what to say or preach.  That’s a good question because I happened to be working on this sermon at that exact time and I was struggling with how to preach it. 

See, this morning, I’m going to tell you about Jesus meeting with Nicodemus and Jesus saying “you need to be born again” and while that seems like the easiest thing in the world to preach, I’ve preached on it a million times and it felt hard for me to figure out how to approach it.  

But as I talked it through with him it hit me that there was something I hadn’t preached on before…

Can I show you?

Check this out, we’ll be in John 3

John 3:1-8

 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Nic comes to Jesus and from the outset, he’s showing us that he has respect for Jesus - nic was a part of the Jewish ruling council.

He’s seen Jesus work miracles - He will actually defend Jesus to the Sanhedrin and after Jesus dies, Nic will be one of the people who help bury him.  I think he is legitimately seeking Jesus

Nic is worried about being seen with Jesus - it’s why he comes at night, under the cloak of dark

some of you get that, right, you are interested in spiritual things, but you’ve been resistant to spiritual things for a long time and you can’t have anyone see you being interested

-I love that Jesus just accepts him and starts to talk to Him…

Listen to Jesus’ response to nic….

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”

I love that Jesus doesn’t really care about Nic’s compliments - he cuts straight to the heart of the matter.

How do you overcome temptation, sometimes it feels like there is no way to get past it.  Today, Kent preaches on this from the life of Jesus in Section 18 as well as Interviews Trainer Joe from Lexington.  IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Do you know one of the reasons so many people make new years resolutions?  It’s because we spent so much time giving into temptation over Christmas.

I always joked that I gained 2lbs for every day we were at Jenni’s mom & dad’s house over Christmas because everywhere I went there were literally piles of cookies.

What do you do when you’ve spent your whole life giving in to temptation?

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This morning, we are going to look at a snapshot of Jesus’ life when He faced temptation

then I have a special guest I want to bring out and we’re going to have a discussion around temptation.

So, if you want to open your bibles to Mt 4.  This is right after Jesus gets baptized by John B.  He is led out into the wilderness - this is a dry barren place in Israel with little oasis’ of springs & palm trees.

Listen to what Jesus did..

Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

You get the picture?  Jesus hasn’t eaten for 40 days.  I fasted 11 days one time, I thought I was going to die - I was only drinking water and then I decided to add in fruit juices.  I got so crazy sick from it.

Here is Jesus after 40 days - he’s not just hungry, he’s likely in a position where His body is breaking down muscle at this point.

-Satan comes and tells him to turn the stones into bread…

This is a temptation for Jesus because He COULD have done it.

He could have turned those stones to bread and just eaten them.

But Jesus resists the temptation and quotes the scripture from Duet 8 “man shall not live on bread alone”  This scripture is where God is telling the Israelites he let them go Hungry and then fed them with manna so they would learn that man lives by God’s word, not by anything else.

Jesus is not willing to step past what the Father has called Him to for a quick fix…

Oof, that’s a gut punch for me…  I don’t know about you.

How often do you settle for a quick fix and miss what God may be intending for us if we had just held out?

I don’t know if you can feel it, but Jesus cannot be in a good mental space right now…

People are most susceptible to temptation when th

Listen to Russel Johnson talk about the importance of drawing near to God!

IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

How do you encounter God when He seems silent?  How do you know if you are doing what He REALLY wants?  This week Kent tackles this question and challenges us to take our relationship with God to the next level. Jump in with us in Sections 2 & 19 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

So, in Israel, you walk in this parking garage that has KFC on the escalator, and there are vendors trying to get you to buy their goods.  You walk up this hill to this massive building - it looks more like a castle than a church, then you turn into this parking lot full of cars and people, all waiting in line to enter into this ancient building.  Each time it’s been repaired the doorway has gotten smaller, to where now you have to duck to get in.  It’s said you duck in reverence to Christ, no one is allowed to enter without bowing to Jesus.  

When you get through that door, there is an ancient entryway and another door you pass through and you enter into this giant cathedral with massive ancient mosaics covering the walls

You walk up past this worship space that is full of so much ornamentation that it’s hard to process it all.  You are ushered into this smaller space and everyone crowds down this little set of stairs that leads down to the bedrock - all of this is built over the ancient stones that would have been there during Jesus’ life.  I wish I had the ability to start taking away all of these adornments and to strip back the land to what it would have looked like, because really, what you are walking into is a cave that is built into the bedrock - nothing fancy, no fanfare.  But you would be standing in the middle of a bible story.  

I felt like it took a lot of imagination to get rid of thousands of years of junk to see what was there.  A dark, smelly, hard, cold cave that would have been used to house animals…

You literally are standing in the midst of a bible story at this point.  You are walking into the middle of the 2nd chapter of Luke.  

I stood there and watched as people worshiped in these spots.  All I could think about was that fateful night so long ago when that spot changed from a cave into a cathedral…

Can I read to you the historical account of this moment?

Luke 2:1-7

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available fo

How do you encounter God when He seems silent?  How do you know if you are doing what He REALLY wants?  This week Kent tackles this question and challenges us to take our relationship with God to the next level. Jump in with us in Sections 2 & 19 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

When Piper was little, she was the queen of the Silent treatment.  Some of you have probably experienced it.  Jenni and I laugh about it because people will come up to her and ask her some questions and she will just look at them with her big beautiful brown eyes and stare at them.  Jenni took her to the doctor a year ago or so and Jenni said the doctor asked her all these questions, and Piper just played possum.  She acted like the doctor wasn’t even there.  Then the doctor turned around and Piper just giggled.  That little stinker.  She’s so quiet that a few years ago I paid her money to talk to adults - just to practice…

She’s the queen of the silent treatment

God happens to be pretty good at silence too…

Did you know that God spent 400 years without talking one time?

Don’t believe me?

Open your bible to the very last 2 verses of the Old Testament

Malachi 4:5-6

5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” 

And then for 400 years… 

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God went silent…

-literally, there was no more prophets

-no more God speaking

-no more miracles

—He was just silent - God’s silent Treatment

and then…

John 1:1-8

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

I think John the Disciple is intentionally opening His gospel in this way to break the silence.  

John is taking us back to the creation story - “In the Beginning.” 

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Did Matthew get it wrong about Jesus?  What can we learn from what he said about Jesus as Immanuel? Jump in with us in Sections 8 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

Sermon Notes Slide Key:

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

You guys, it’s officially Christmas season!!!  Woop!

Have you ever thought something was one thing and it ended up being another?

Like for instance, the first time I tried a persimmons fruit, I thought it was a fruit, but turns out it’s an invention of the devil to deceive us all!

Ha, or you showed up on for a date of someone you met on tender and they were not the person in their profile, oof!

Or maybe for you, the job you got hired into wasn’t completely honest with you about what you would be doing and you got there and it felt like the old switcheroo!

This morning we are going to look at a switcher-oo that Matthew sees in a passage from the Old Testament. We’re going to dig into it and see how it digs into us!

Open your Bible to Matthew 1 for a moment, hold it with your finger and get open to Isaiah 7 also…

Here we go…

This is the setup, Mary is, according to tradition in her home in Nazareth, I’ve been to this spot - there’s this whole huge church built over this little hobbit hole in the side of the mountain.  People literally lived in caves in Nazareth.  The cave can’t be bigger than 10x10.  Mary, this little poor teenage girl has an angel visit her and announce that she will be with child - God’s spirit will overshadow her and place a baby inside her - we don’t know how that happens, but we do know that Mary is a virgin - she’s never been with a man. She’s told to give the baby the name Yeshua - or we say, Jesus, meaning “The Lord Saves.”

Matthew is going to click on this hyperlink for us and take us back to a passage in the book of Isaiah

Check it out…

Matthew 1:22-23 

“ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Now, if you’ve EVER been to a Christmas church service, there’s about a 40% chance you’ve heard about this passage, but 

Did you know that Matthew is literally quoting a passage from the book of

What can you learn from a teenage pregnant girl?  Turns out a lot! Jump in with us in Sections 6 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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Sermon Notes Slide Key:

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?

Up until now, as we’ve been tracking Jesus, we’ve been jumping all around, but now we are going to take a turn and go back to the beginning and start tracking Jesus through his life chronologically…

I was thinking about going to families' houses for thanksgiving - how many of you travel for Thanksgiving?  If Kansas wasn’t so far away, we’d love to be near our family.  It’s crazy to me to think our family is really just one LONG drive away, but we are about to jump into the story of Mary - right after she’s found out that she will be carrying the Savior and she is going to travel to her relatives' house, Elizabeth.  

Nazareth to the hills of Judea would have been 3 to 4 days by foot and when she goes she’s going to go for 3 months…

The reason I wanted to start here in Jesus’ life is knowing the kind of people someone was raised by, can tell you a lot about the person.

and for Jesus, it’s no different…

Let me Set the Stage…

Mary has been told by an angel, Gabriel, that she is going to be with child.  He tells her that Elizabeth is in her 6 month of pregnancy - Mary stayed right up to the birth of John or left right before in order to let John and Elizabeth get ready…

But when Mary shows up on Elizabeth’s doorstep - before Mary can even share what has happened with her, John the Baptist, inside Elizabeth's womb jumps for joy - He responds to the Holy Spirit.  Elizabeth just knows that Mary is carrying the savior.  We don’t know how she knows other than the Holy Spirit fills Betsy…  

I love this interaction, Elizabeth, at the end of our life bearing the child that would ultimately announce the arrival of Jesus on the scene announces Mary & her child and pronounces how blessed Mary is.

Both women were in extraordinary circumstances

It is after Elizabeth makes this proclamation about Mary that Mary begins to speak…

Honestly

Luke 1:46-56

46 And Mary said:

There is a way lots of people get following Jesus wrong.  Today, Kent unpacks this major mistake lots of people make and show us how there is a different way. Jump in with us in Sections 182 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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Sermon Notes Slide Key:

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